By Amos Aar
THE BENUE State Government on Tuesday held mass burial for seventeen (17) people massacred on March 7, 2024 when armed men suspected to be herders attacked Wandor Community in Mbakyor, Mbalom, Gwer East LGA of the state. Their remains were all buried in Mbakyor.
Benue State governor, Rev. Fr. Hyacinth Alia, while addressing people at the burial promised that such an ugly incident would not occur in any of Benue communities as his administration was working round the clock in synergy with security agencies to put a stop to herders’ attack in the state.
Represented by his Deputy, Sam Ode, the governor said one of the measures that would end the persistent attacks by armed herdsmen on defenseless farmers in the state was the formation of vigilante groups, noting that security is not for government alone.
Sympathising with Gwer people, Alia said: “Today is a sad day in the history of Benue State; to line up caskets like this is unacceptable. I am so sad and my heart is heavy to see this kind of spectacle that shouldn’t have happened.
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“Security is not for government alone because there is no one that can protect you like yourself; you need to have a Joint Security Taskforce or vigilante groups that would be properly profiled and handed over to government to handle them. That is the solution to the insecurity we are facing in the state”.
He promised to construct the road that passes through the axis to ease the movement of security agencies to the area in times of emergencies, adding that the community was also ripe for a police station.
Also speaking, member representing Gwer East at the Benue State House of Assembly, Elias Audu, wondered why despite the availability of fighter planes to tackle such attacks, security did not live up to their responsibility.
He advised that the relevant security agency should be reprimanded because they would have intervened in the crisis, using fighter helicopters in such a situation, adding that they didn’t when his people were under siege for over three hours.
On his part, the president, Masev Development Association, Prof. Vitalis Tarhule, appealed to government to protect the people, pointing out that the primary responsibility of government was the protection of lives and property
Prof. Tarhule stressed the need to establish a security post in Mbakyor to check the unwholesome activities of armed herders as he recalled that similar attacks had occured in 2014, 2018 and 2024, bringing to a total about 40 lives that were lost.
Chairman, Association of Mbakyor sons in diaspora, Simon Kofi, told the governor that his people had apprehended two herders and handed them over to the police due to their nefarious activities.
He explained that their crime was that they told the herders not to come back to the community again, a situation which prompted the attack on his kinsmen.
Kofi urged the state government to nip insecurity in the but and also construct access road to the community as well as deploy qualified healthcare personnel to the existing primary healthcare center in their community for proper healthcare service delivery.
Earlier, an interdenominational service was conducted for the victims of the attack by Pastors and Reverend Fathers before the final interment.
